Contents
- Household spending on sporting goods statistics: U.S. annual spending on sports and exercise equipment
- Household spending on sporting goods statistics: EU mean spending levels across countries
- Household spending on sporting goods statistics: how EU households allocate sports spending
- Household spending on sporting goods statistics: equipment and outdoor recreation spending by country
- Household spending on sporting goods statistics: recreational and sporting services by country
- Household spending on sporting goods statistics: share of total household budgets and comparison with food and housing
- Sources
Household spending on sporting goods statistics: U.S. annual spending on sports and exercise equipment
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports average annual consumer expenditures in dollars for “sports, recreation, and exercise equipment.” The series spans 2010 through 2024, although the observations below are selected years from that table. These values describe average annual consumer expenditure in the United States, not the cost of a particular sport, product, or household’s purchases. Source: BLS, “The New Year and household spending”
| Year | Average annual expenditure (dollars) |
|---|---|
| 2010 | $127 |
| 2011 | $145 |
| 2013 | $126 |
| 2014 | $143 |
| 2015 | $131 |
| 2016 | $152 |
| 2017 | $179 |
| 2018 | $151 |
| 2020 | $188 |
| 2021 | $282 |
| 2022 | $218 |
| 2023 | $231 |
| 2024 | $225 |
The listed annual averages vary across the selected years. The series rises from $127 in 2010 to $179 in 2017, then records $151 in 2018 and $188 in 2020. The largest listed value is $282 in 2021; subsequent listed values are $218 in 2022, $231 in 2023, and $225 in 2024. This is a set of observations, not an explanation of why spending changed. The BLS table’s category combines sports, recreation, and exercise equipment, so it should not be read as a measure of sports equipment alone or as spending on sporting services.
The 2024 observation is the latest year shown in the cited table. The figures are in dollars and retain the table’s average annual consumer expenditure framing. They are useful for describing the scale and variation in this category over time, but the supplied evidence does not provide a product-level breakdown or a separate measure for karting equipment. Source: BLS, “The New Year and household spending”
Household spending on sporting goods statistics: EU mean spending levels across countries
Eurostat reports that private households in the EU spent an estimated average of 328 PPS on sporting goods and services in 2020. Its comparison with 2015 gives an EU mean of 318 PPS. PPS, or purchasing power standards, is used for cross-country comparisons; these amounts are not euro amounts. Eurostat identifies 2020 as the most recent Household Budget Survey reference year in the cited statistical article. Source: Eurostat, “Household expenditure on sporting goods and services”
A separate Eurostat news article gives 2020 average household expenditure values for 22 EU countries with available data. In that comparison, Luxembourg is reported at 628 PPS, the Netherlands at 622 PPS, Austria at 620 PPS, and Germany at 526 PPS. Values below 100 PPS in the same comparison include Poland at 95 PPS, Lithuania at 87 PPS, Slovakia at 66 PPS, and Bulgaria at 24 PPS. These figures cover sporting goods and services together. Source: Eurostat, “Which EU countries spend the most on sporting goods?”
Eurostat’s later statistical article describes a comparison covering 24 EU countries with data. It says Ireland had the highest mean household expenditure and that Ireland, Finland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and Austria each exceeded 600 PPS. The country availability scope differs from the news article’s 22-country comparison, so the two reported scopes should remain distinct. The provided figures do not support filling in the unreported values for the other countries or treating either country count as a complete list of all EU states. Source: Eurostat, “Household expenditure on sporting goods and services”
Taken together, the EU figures show a broad range in average household expenditure across the countries named: the cited 2020 values run from 24 PPS in Bulgaria to more than 600 PPS in several countries. The measures are means and use PPS to enable comparison; they do not say that every household in a country spent the mean amount. The evidence also concerns the combined sporting-goods-and-services category, rather than a standalone equipment budget. Sources: Eurostat, “Which EU countries spend the most on sporting goods?”; Eurostat, “Household expenditure on sporting goods and services”
Household spending on sporting goods statistics: how EU households allocate sports spending
The 2020 EU allocation gives a view of how spending within the sporting-goods-and-services aggregate was distributed among categories. Recreational and sporting services accounted for 67% of the total. Equipment for sport, camping, and open-air recreation accounted for 15.6%, while major durables for outdoor recreation accounted for 14.4%. Maintenance and repair of other major durables for recreation and culture represented 2.1%, and major durables for indoor recreation accounted for 0.9%. These percentages are shares of sporting-goods-and-services expenditure, not shares of all household spending. Source: Eurostat, “Household expenditure on sporting goods and services”
| EU category, 2020 | Share of sporting-goods-and-services expenditure |
|---|---|
| Recreational and sporting services | 67% |
| Equipment for sport, camping, and open-air recreation | 15.6% |
| Major durables for outdoor recreation | 14.4% |
| Maintenance and repair of other major durables for recreation and culture | 2.1% |
| Major durables for indoor recreation | 0.9% |
The labels distinguish ordinary equipment from major durables and services. Equipment for sport, camping, and open-air recreation is not the same category as major durables for outdoor recreation. Likewise, the broad services category is not a measure of equipment purchases. This distinction matters when using the phrase “sporting goods”: Eurostat’s aggregate includes specified equipment, recreation durables, repair, and recreational and sporting services. The figures therefore describe a wider household expenditure basket than goods alone. Source: Eurostat, “Household expenditure on sporting goods and services”
The services share is the largest of the listed EU categories, while equipment for sport, camping, and open-air recreation and major outdoor durables are also substantial components. The smaller shares for repair and indoor major durables are separate classifications in the source. They should not be collapsed into one equipment figure without changing what the data measure. Source: Eurostat, “Household expenditure on sporting goods and services”
Household spending on sporting goods statistics: equipment and outdoor recreation spending by country
The country comparison for major durables for outdoor recreation shows marked variation in the category’s share of sporting-goods-and-services expenditure in 2020. The reported endpoints are 0.4% in Hungary and 69.0% in Greece. Eurostat also identifies several other countries where major durables for outdoor recreation were the second-largest spending item in this aggregate. Source: Eurostat, “Household expenditure on sporting goods and services”
| Country | Major durables for outdoor recreation, share of sporting-goods-and-services expenditure |
|---|---|
| Greece | 69.0% |
| Belgium | 36.7% |
| Denmark | 33.7% |
| Luxembourg | 29.2% |
| Lithuania | 27.2% |
| Malta | 19.3% |
| Netherlands | 18.1% |
| France | 16.5% |
| Ireland | 8.1% |
| Hungary | 0.4% |
These shares use sporting-goods-and-services expenditure as their denominator. They do not represent the percentage of all household expenditure devoted to outdoor recreation, nor do they provide currency amounts. Greece’s 69.0% figure is the high end of the reported range; Hungary’s 0.4% is the low end. The listed values for Belgium, Denmark, Luxembourg, Lithuania, Malta, the Netherlands, France, and Ireland are specifically reported among countries where major outdoor recreation durables were the second-largest item. Source: Eurostat, “Household expenditure on sporting goods and services”
This category is narrower than the other equipment-related category in the EU allocation: “equipment for sport, camping, and open-air recreation.” The country shares here refer to major durables for outdoor recreation. The supplied country facts do not give country-level shares for the equipment category, so these numbers should not be presented as a complete ranking of sporting equipment spending. Source: Eurostat, “Household expenditure on sporting goods and services”
Household spending on sporting goods statistics: recreational and sporting services by country
Recreational and sporting services were 67% of the EU’s sporting-goods-and-services expenditure in 2020, but the country-level shares vary. Eurostat reports that the share ranged from 19.2% in Greece to 93.7% in Cyprus. The contrast is within the sporting-goods-and-services category: the percentages do not indicate the proportion of all household budgets spent on sports services. Source: Eurostat, “Household expenditure on sporting goods and services”
| Country | Recreational and sporting services, share of sporting-goods-and-services expenditure |
|---|---|
| Cyprus | 93.7% |
| Bulgaria | 81.3% |
| Croatia | 79.3% |
| Finland | 48.9% |
| Belgium | 46.8% |
| Denmark | 43.7% |
| Greece | 19.2% |
Cyprus leads the values given here, with Bulgaria and Croatia next among the reported high shares. The values for Finland, Belgium, and Denmark are all below 50%; Greece is lower still at 19.2%. Those figures sit alongside the much larger shares for major outdoor recreation durables reported for Greece, Belgium, and Denmark in the preceding section. The different patterns reflect the fact that the categories divide the same broad expenditure aggregate in different ways; the data do not establish why country allocations differ. Sources: Eurostat, “Which EU countries spend the most on sporting goods?”; Eurostat, “Household expenditure on sporting goods and services”
The country observations are useful for comparing the composition of this specific expenditure category. They should not be interpreted as absolute spending amounts or as participation rates. A high service share means services make up a large proportion of the country’s sporting-goods-and-services expenditure; by itself, it does not show that the overall mean expenditure is high. Source: Eurostat, “Household expenditure on sporting goods and services”
Household spending on sporting goods statistics: share of total household budgets and comparison with food and housing
At EU level, sporting goods and services accounted for 1.2% of total household expenditure in 2020. Food and housing together accounted for 48.6%. These percentages use total household expenditure as the denominator, unlike the category-allocation shares above, which divide sporting-goods-and-services spending among its component categories. Source: Eurostat, “Household expenditure on sporting goods and services”
Eurostat also compares mean household expenditure on food and housing with mean expenditure on sporting goods and services. In 2020, the ratio was 323 in Bulgaria, 141 in Hungary, 127 in Slovakia, 114 in Lithuania, and 104 in Poland. In 10 EU countries, mean expenditure on food and housing was up to 30 times mean expenditure on sporting goods and services. The ratios compare mean expenditure between these two groupings; they are not percentage shares of budgets. Source: Eurostat, “Household expenditure on sporting goods and services”
These measures place sporting goods and services in the context of broader household budgets. The EU-wide figure of 1.2% describes the aggregate’s share of total expenditure, while the 48.6% figure combines food and housing. The country ratios use mean expenditures and show how much larger food-and-housing expenditure was than the sporting-goods-and-services mean in the named countries. These are different measures and should be kept in their original forms. Source: Eurostat, “Household expenditure on sporting goods and services”